Prolonging Your Stay
by Prolonging Your Stay
Summary: Severus Snape believed that the "Dark Lord" would kill him that night, so long ago. He wanted to quicken to pain, but what if he brought the wrong potion and ended up Prolonging His Stay?


Prolonging Your Stay

I do not own Harry Potter.

I brush my hand through my hair as a sign of frustration. It has been a year since the war and the fall of Voldemort. I've gone on to be an auror, although I had many opportunities to be a D.A.D.A professor. Training to be an auror isn't the easiest task in the world. Part of the training is transfiguration, which I had been fairly good at in Hogwarts, but the amount of things they try to make me transfigure at one time is mental! Not to mention you have to do it wandless!

"Harry!" came a screech just outside the office door.

"Ginny?" I said alarmed.

The door of the office flew open and right in the doorway stood a very lovely, red-haired, bewildered woman.

"Harry! We must get to Hogwarts immediately!" She tramped, grabbing my hand.

"Why? What happened?" I said calmly. Trying to keep Ginny calm was the best thing I could do right now.

"I will explain later, right now we really must go!" She urged.

"Alright, alright! I'm going!" I stood up and rushed towards the Floo with Ginny in tow. "Where exactly?"

"The Hospital Wing!" She rushed.

I stepped up into the Floo; Ginny followed. I grabbed a handful of Floo Powder and cleared my throat.

"Hogwarts Hospital Wing!" I said very clearly, throwing down the green powder into the fireplace. Immediately I was, along with Ginny, engulfed in green flames. I arrived seconds later at the hospital wing.

"Oh My!" Madame Pomfrey squealed, "Oh My, My, My!" She was running amuck! Going from one end of the room to the other, seemingly keen on one thing. A little section of the room was walled off by a curtain. Before I could even take one step towards it, someone called for me.

"Harry! Oh thank Merlin you're here!" Professor McGonagall stated, clearly quite pleased.

"Professor? Can you please tell me what in Merlin's name is going on?" I asked, still confused why Ginny brought me here of all places.

"Right, well… how should I put this?" She seemed lost in thought as she pursed her lips. I waited for what seemed like hours, although in actuality a few seconds only passed. I scanned the room impatiently.

"It's about… Severus," She said hesitantly, as if it was a touchy subject, which of course, it was.

My eyes locked on hers. I forced my Emerald eyes to be as menacing as possible. She knows why I am so sensitive about him; so why bring him up in a matter such as this.

"And why is Professor Snape involved in this? He's...dead!" I said coldly through gritted teeth. I rarely lose my temper, but for her to just simply put his name out there as if he could possibly be… no! I cannot lose my temper, just stay calm Harry!

"It would seem, that Severus knew he would be… killed that fateful night so long ago! He knew that You Know Who… Voldemort would try to kill him slowly, so he brought along some… poison to lessen the effects and have a quick, death," She paused, scanning my face to see my reaction. I was about to say something when she started again.

"However, Severus took the wrong vial. He took a permanent de-aging potion. Since he took the vial before he was struck by Voldemort, the effects of the curse seemed to have... counteracted it and he was, I guess you could say, resurrected." She waited for me to let the information sink in.

"I see," was all I said.

I turned around and walked toward the curtain. Pulling it back slightly, I spot a sleeping infant. Spiky black hair huh, he looks nothing like he did when he was thirty-eight; of course that is to be expected.

"Does he remember anything?" I asked quietly.

"I think he does. But it is very limited," said Ginny.

"How so?" I pushed.

"Madame Pomfrey and I ran some diagnoses. I could only understand very little of what it said, you would need to ask her," Ginny said gloomily. I turned my attention towards the nurse.

"Severus can only remember the very essentials of his past life. He knows his name and everyone elses, and he also remembers a lot of words; but Severus does not remember why he is here or anything about his past," She said softly, pushing back Severus's hair.

"You learned all of this from a child?" I asked skeptically.

She rolled her eyes as she spoke, "Not from the child himself, the tests."

I walk up to the crib the child was in. Moving him over a little I brush his hair. My action cause the infant to curl up into a tighter ball and wrap his little fingers over my hand.

"Why did you call me and Gin into this?" I whispered.

"You are the only ones we can trust with the tyke!" Professor McGonagall chuckled.

The chuckle woke up Severus, and Ginny was suddenly by my side.

"Hey there handsome!" She perked.

"Ihn! Ihn!" He squealed. It was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my entire life. He began to sit up.

"Uh! Uh! Uh!" He said. He furrowed his eyebrows and reached his hands up in the air. Ginny reached in the crib to try and pick him up, but he just screamed.

"Eh Ahn Haw-eh!" he whined. Ginny looked at me questioningly but I knew exactly what he was saying. He said "I want Harry!"

I reach in and pick him up. He snuggles into my red t-shirt.

"Why all the rush Ginny?" I said, eyeing her playfully.

Ginny blushed and just shot me a look of guilt, "Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall told me to get you here quickly."

"So how old is he?" Ginny said, wanting to change the subject.

"Looks like 10 months," I put.

"Precisely," Madame Pomfrey stated. She puffed out her chest and nodded her head as a statement meaning she was proud.

"Where are our quarters?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Godrics Hollow," Ginny said.

"Perfect!" I grinned.


End file.
